As is well-known to everybody, Short Message Service (hereinafter, simply referred to as ‘SMS’) is a text messaging service transmitted using a cellular phone, and in Korea, this is a kind of mobile communication service capable of transmitting a message including up to 88 bytes, i.e., 80 to 90 English letters or 40 to 45 Korean characters.
Such an SMS message is generally transmitted from a cellular phone or a PC to another cellular phone. If a transmitter inputs a text message into his or her cellular phone and presses a transmit button, the text message is transferred to a Short Message Service Center (SMSC) by way of a base station and then arrives at a cellular phone of a receiver through a transmission channel. Finally, if the cellular phone of the receiver replies to the base station that it has received the text message, transmission of the SMS is completely finished.
Since such an SMS may transmit the same message to a plurality of receivers, it is frequently used for public relations or marketing of a company, and companies having a large number of members may advantageously use the SMS to deliver product guides, events, announcements or the like.
Meanwhile, the SMS is originally a service for transmitting a text message from a cellular phone or a PC to another cellular phone. However, as time goes by, the text message can be transmitted to a PC or a server, not a cellular phone, and this is referred to as Message Oriented (MO) service.
The MO service is used in a variety of fields, such as broadcasting which needs real-time bidirectional communication with viewers, marketing developed as part of a marketing activity, dealing with customer service at a call center or a government office, an electric scoreboard in a stadium and the like.
Participating in an ARS quiz provided in a broadcast program, requesting music in a radio broadcast program, leaving a supporting message and the like are the examples of the MO service.
However, conventional MO service merely provides viewers with a way of participating in (e.g., voting for) a program of TV/radio or the like, and there is a limit in that the conventional MO service does not provide sufficient means for persuading viewers participating in a corresponding program as a customer of a product or a service.